July 1st, 2008

Eugene `08 - Night Four

by Toni Reavis in Olympics

 Night Four at the 2008 Olympic Trials had all the potential for hearts a thumpin’.  The men’s and women’s 800 meter finals, and the men’s 5000 final to close the show.  It may be a little choppy, but here’s how it played out in real time at Hayward Field on a glorious summer’s evening in Eugene.

7:10 p.m. - 75-77 degrees, sunny skies with still a bit of the haze blown in from the northern California fires till clinging to the surrounding hills.

Women’s 400 Semifinal # 1 - top 4 in each heat

  1. Mary Wineburg - 50:57 - fastest of her 2008 season in 5 leads the whole way
  2. Natasha Hastings - 51.04 in 4
  3. Shareese Woods - 51.79 in 7
  4. Debbie Dunn - 51.79 in 6

Then Shareese Woods gets DQ’d for running over her line three separate times.  Monique Hargrove moved into finals in her place with a 51.88.

Women’s 400m Semifinal  # 2 - Dee Dee Trotter in lane 4, Sanya Richards in 5, Monique Henderson in 6

Sanya in 5 eats up Monique in 6, but Monique still second till Dee Dee drives home as is her want to take second, with Ebonie Floyd in 7 taking the fourth spot.

1. Richards - 50.75

  1. Trotter - 50.90
  2. Henderson - 51.04
  3. Floyd - 51.49

Men’s 400m Semifinal # 1

Lionel Larry in 4, Reggie Witherspoon in 6, Darold Williamson in 8.

1. Reggie Witherspoon 44.99

2. Darold Williamson

3. Calvin Smith

4. Lionel Larry

Men’s 400  meter Semifinal  # 2

David Neville in 3, Jeremy Wariner in 4, LaShawn Merritt in 5,

Merrit out well, Warnier holding, LeJerald Betters in six.  Now to the stretch and Wariner coming smoothly ahead, Neville, and Merritt, and Greg Nixon (`07 indoor champ)

  1. Jeremy Wariner - 44.66
  2. LaShawn Merritt - 44.76
  3. David Neville - 45.03
  4. Greg Nixon - 45.20

7:40 p.m - Semifinal #1 - Women’s 3000m steeplechase

Lindsey Anderson of Nike leads with Nicole Bush out of Michigan State -  Beijing will be the first time the steeple for women will appear on the Olympic schedule.  Anderson and Bush with nearly a three second advantage over Dawn Cramer and Lisa Galaviz who lead the second pack five minutes into it.  Top four to the final plus next six best times.  Kara June in third at the bell.  Anderson still with Bush.  June in third, Galaviz in fourth with a gap.  June closing slightly from third. Crowed senses a possible attack.  But not going to happen.  Top four decided. Anderson breaks clean over last hurdle, but Bush returns the favor at the line to win in 9:49.53.  Anderson in second, Galaviz overtakes June for third.

1.  Nicole Bush - Mich. State - 9:49.53 - just missing Hayward Field record by a tick.

2.  Lindsay Anderson - Nike - 9:49.71

  1. Lisa Galaviz - Nike - 9:52.66
  2. Kara June - Asics Aggies - 9:53.01

Women’s 3000m steeplechase - Semifinal # 2

Jenny Barringer winner of 2008 NCAAs for Colorado in 2nd prelim.  She has the fastest time by an American this year with 9:29.20.

Barringer in second behind Anna Willard and her bleached white hair tinged in red.  Carrie Strickland in 3rd .repping the Bowerman AC.  Willard, Barringer, Strickland, 7, and Bridget Franek strung one behind the other  With two laps to go the crowd has joined the race.  Now Barringer to the lead with one to go.  Willard, Strickland and Caffigan. And Barringer is striding out easily in her black Buffalo kit.  Still five trying to go into four places.

  1. Jenny Barringer - 9:48.50
  2. Anna Willard - 9:52.06
  3. Carrie Strickland - 9:53.43

4.   Carrie Mesner-Vickers - 9:53.78

  1. Ann Gaffigan - 9:55.24

8:14 PM

WOMEN’S 800 METER FINAL -         

12 Women rather than 8 in the field as four were re-instated into the final after the spill and protest in Semifinal # 1 on Saturday afternoon.

Configured in a seven and five waterfall start.  Big guns in the outer wave. Only four have the 2:00.00 Olympic “A” standard, Clark, Schmidt, Katie Waits, and Nicole Teter.

Off we go.  Hazel out with purpose, Alice sticking close by and here they come together.  Clark, Bennett, Schmidt. 26.6 at 200.  Fast. Hazel and Alice, Bennett. No messing around, but everyone has space. No pushing and shoving, too fast a pace. The thought of 12 in the field spooked them for sure. 56.89 at the quarter.  Very quick.  Alice on Hazel’s shoulder and they fight for the lead.  Teter into third. Hazel and Alice side by side.  Teter solid, but here comes Kameisha Bennett on Teter.  Hazel with a lead into the stretch. The effort etched on her face.  Schmidt holding tight in second. Teter and Bennett in the battle for Beijing. Alice fading a bit, but so is everyone after that quick a start. Hazel wins it. Alice second, long-limbed Kameisha Bennett takes the final spot as Teter totters to fourth, but with Bennett failing to hit the “A” standard, Teter takes the Olympic berth.

And now the men’s 800 runners come out onto the track in the twilight.  Andrew Wheating of the University of Oregon gets a rousing welcome from his home crowd.  He’s thrilled them in both the prelim and the semifinal, waiting till the final 50 meters to pass the field and advance.  Will that work in the final?

Nick Symmonds another Oregon Track Club runner is in lane one with team mate Christian Smith in two, Wheating in 3.

Lots of encouragement from the crowd as they yell out their favorites names.  Off they go.  Khadevis Robinson (”KD”) out fast like in days of old.  24.1 at 200. Symmonds determined, but joins Wheating in the rear again.  50.3 at the quarter.  KD, Lopes Lomong into second with 300 to go. Everyone still in it.  KD pressing away into the far turn. Wheating yet to move. 

But here comes Nick around the bend, and he is FLYING away!  He’s gone, all the way to China. Walked away from them.  And now here comes Wheating on the outside, too.  The people are going nuts!  The hair on my arms is standing straight up.  This is Hayward Field fully engorged.  The place is heaving in the din as Christian Smith of the Oregon Track Club finds an opening along the rail that KD left open, and he dives across the line. Down goes KD!  Down goes Smith!  All in a heap for third.  But which one got it?  The board flashes the results. It reads Smith. They all made it.  The team is Oregonian across the board. Christian Smith, Andrew Wheating and the champ, Nick Symmonds.  But a dominating win by Symmonds.  1:44.10, fastest of the year by an American.  A magical night in Eugene.  Just goes to show if you’ve got someone to root for it doesn’t get any better than this.  Symmonds missed the Hayward record by nine-hundredths of a second, but so what. The old place is lucky to still be standing. Some call it the loudest crowd they’ve ever heard anywhere!

Brian Clay runs a 4:49 1500 to win the decathlon in a new PR 8832, the best American decathlon total in 16 years, and the third all-time performance behind two Dan O’Brien marks.  Tom Pappas right behind becomes the first man ever to make three Olympic teams in the event with 8511.  Trey Hardee with 8534 takes second. 

8:55 PM - Women’s 5000 meters Prelims - Top six in each heat plus next four best times

74. 7 first 400 with Lauren Fleshman and Shalane Flanagan leading the way. Shalane already on the 10,000 meter team.  Tasmin Fanning from Virginia Tech and Notre Dame grad Molly Huddle in row two.  76.6 in lap two.  Eleven women in this heat.  3:10.4 for the opening kilometer.  The women’s javelin final is being contested on the field.  75.2 for lap three.  Nine to go. Fleshman and Flanagan.  Fanning and Emily Brown of Team USA Minnesota New Balance.  76.7 in the back and forth pacing in this first prelim.  Fleshman on the inside with Flanagan on the outside.

Into the javelin lead with a 191′9″ Kara Patterson from Purdue. 

6:22.4 at two kilometers in the 5000 with the field still well-bunched.  Now Renee Metivier Baille former NCAA champ to the front in her green Nike. At 8:50 Shalane begins to impose her will.  Huddle moves up to third behind Baille.  Four to go.  Flanagan, Mandi Zemba of New Balance, Baille, and Huddle. Six to go through.  75.5 lap as Flanagan opens a bit of a gap, Fanning second, Fleshman, Baille.  12:40.56 for 4000m.  74.4, fastest of the race as they approach two to go.  Eight in the pack. Six to move on.  Huddle in fifth. Stringing out with 600 left.  Flanagan, Fanning, Fleshman.  72 flat.  14:29 at the bell.  Melissa Cook in fourth, Molly Huddle in fifth.  Six women are free. Flanagan leads.  69.8 the penultimate lap. 

  1. Shalane Flanagan - 15:35.86
  2. Maureen McCandless - 15:36.52 with a surge at the end
  3. Lauren Fleshman - 15:36.79
  4. 4. Melissa Cook
  5. Molly Huddle
  6. Tasmin Fanning

 9:15 p.m.  WOMEN’S 5000 METERS - SECOND PRELIM

Sarah Slattery and Jen Rhines of Team USA California in Mammoth Lakes to the front.  Stanford star Ari Lambi repping Nike in third. 74.6 first go round.  Rhines has already been on two Olympic teams, the 10,000 in Sydney 2000 and the marathon in `04 Athens. She has the fastest 5000 by an American in 2008 at 14:54.29.  10 wome in this race.  76.3 for lap number two.  Colorado grad  - and Rhines team mate in Mammoth Lakes - Sarah Slattery still leads.  Rhines second.  10 laps remain.  The night is fully upon us, and the night couldn’t be better for the distances.  The crowd supplies the warmth with their claps and yells.  The women are strung out here as Slattery maintains a breezy pace.  Julie Culley representing the New York A.C. in third digs in with a 15:47 best this year.  Kara Goucher is in this heat as well tucked along the rail in seventh position. She’s already a 10,000 Olympian from the other day. No changes in the order since they set off. 6:16.92 at two kilometers, slightly faster than the opening 5000. Six to go.  May Hastings and Rebecca Donaghue of New Balance Boston have now made their presence felt in fourth and fifth.  But Slattery still drives the train at 77.5 with Jen tucked neatly in second.  Now Arianna Lambie goes to the front.  9:29.42 at 3K.  Lambie, Rhines, and Slattery with Goucher entering the mix on Slattery’s shoulder.  73.7 by Lambie for the fastest lap of the race.  Eight women still together with four laps left.  74-flat for the last lap and they approach the line with three to go. And Jen takes her turn out front. Her husband/coach Terrence Mahon says she never goes to the lead unless she’s ready to take it all the way. And she is pushing.  72.6 by Jen who has strung them out.  Two to go. Lambi sits in behind Rhines with Goucher in third.  Julie Culley in fourth.  Donaghue in fifth, Slattery in six. Pretty well established.  Three in front.  Jen, Ari, and Kara.  14:20.9 at the bell with Jen in front, Kara into second, Ari succumbing in third.  Down the backstretch and around the turn. 15:32.21 with Goucher easing by for the win.  Rhines and Lambie close by in second and third.  Julie Culley Rebecca Donaghue in 15:38.95 with Sarah Slattery in 15:40.24 taking the sixth automatic qualifying position.

U.S. Olympic team uniforms are debuted by members of the 2008 U.S. Olympic track and field team.  Dark blue and tight fitting to reduce drag with red block USA letters highlighted in light blue.  I’m not a fan.  Bicycle shorts?  Please don’t. I want the old fashioned uniforms with the blue shorts, white singlet with the diagonal stripes. 

9:55 p.m.

And now on the track the MEN’S 5000 METER FINAL.  Sixteen in the field, led by World Champion Bernard “Kip” Lagat, World champs fourth placer Matt Tegenkamp, Wisconsin teammate Chris Solinsky, and 2000 Olympic finalist Adam Goucher. But Adam doesn’t have the 13:21.5 Olympic “A” standard. We’ll find out very quickly the tenor of this race. 

Here we go. Kip to the point, but Brent Vaughn scoots through 32-second 200 and really opens a lead.  Jeez.  If he’s trying to help pace Goucher, he’s gone at it way too aggressively. He’s got five seconds on the field.  64-flat.  Bolota Asmeron in second.  Thomas Morgan in third, then Goucher in fourth, Solinsky in fifth.  Vaughn still out there.  65.1 for that second lap.  No great shakes, but people are content to let him go. Tegs sits easily in behind Kip in seventh and eighth.  2:41.8 for the opening kilometer, and they are not bunched at all. It’s one long string.  Brent Vaughn was third in the NCAA’s this year for Colorado.  He busted out with a 13:18 PR.  Is he pacing for Goucher?  

And the crowd is already rising to this final under the lights.  The American flag at the north end of Hayward Field is hanging limp as a dog’s tongue.  Now Asmeron is coming on Vaughn along with the rest of the field.  Goucher well positioned in third.  Vaughn, Asmeron, and Goucher. 5:26.7 at 2k. The forgotten man, Ian Dobson, sits in fourth.  Now Kip Lagat scales up into second with Goucher leading.  68.7 for that lap.  8:17.04 at 3K with five laps remaining.  66.9 the last lap.    9:23 with one mile to go. Goucher, Asmeron, Lagat, Dobson, Solinsky, Tegenkamp.  65.1.  13:40 pace.  Goucher needs better.  Setting up as a kicker’s race.  Now Asmeron back in front.  Kip Lagat cruising in second.  Solinsky leads through 4K in 11:00.30.  13:38 pace.  Three to go with Solinsky slingshotting to the lead.  Asmeron in second, but Goucher pulls out and quits it!  Just too many injuries through the years.

Solinsky, Asmeron Kip, Ian, and Tegs.  Five men with three going to China.  58.8.  13:27 pace now. Ian pressing in fifth. The man from Klamath Falls looking to make it another Oregonian on the way to Beijing.  Solinskly leads with 200 to go.  Asmeron second, and Teg  stumbles and almost falls at 4800 meters!  But he recovers.  Into the stretch and, no surprise, Lagat pulls away as easy as water pouring from the spout.  A jewel of a runner, a gem of a man. Tegenkamp in second, and in third look, it’s Ian Dobson back where he was three years ago when he took second in the NCAAs for Stanford, then earned a spot on the world championship team.

Asmeron in fourth two seconds back of Dobson. The Klamath Union High School alums are knocking one back for their boy tonight. 58-flat for the final lap.  13:27.47 for Lagat.

Fourth consecutive 20,000+ crowd.  20,949.  Everyone headed to the Villar Street Pub to rehydrate.

END

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